Australia stand-in captain Steve Smith came out in support of Usman Khawaja after the latter addressed the harsh criticism from the media for playing Golf before the first Ashes Test in Perth. Notably, Khawaja had played a Golf tournament just days before the series opener and had sustained back spasms during the match. This had led to a lot of criticism against him with even many former cricketers raising questions over his baffling decision.
Smith defends Khawaja
Smith labelled the criticism against Khawaja as "unfair" and highlighted how the latter has prepared in the same way for Tests before and has still performed well.
“I’m not going into the mind of Usman Khawaja. He’s had a great career. In terms of preparation, I think he’s always prepared the same way. He’s worked hard. Some of the stuff around him getting injured when he played golf the day before the game, that was unfair," Smith said during the pre-match press-conference.
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Smith further said that Khawaja has had a great career and has delivered the goods for the side in Tests for several years. He found it very harsh of the media to bash the 39-year-old over his preparation.
“I think he’s done that for 15 years and had a pretty good career. On an odd occasion where he prepared the same way he got injured, it’s pretty unfair to single that out. To the rest of it, I can’t really say too much on that, that’s Usman’s views," he added.
Khawaja all set to retire
Meanwhile, Khawaja is set to bid farewell to international cricket after featuring in 87 Tests, 40 ODIs and 9 T20Is for Australia. He has over 8000 runs under his name in international cricket and will be playing his final game in his hometown of Sydney. He currently has 16 hundreds and 28 fifties under his belt in Test cricket and will be aiming to increase that tally in the final Ashes Test against England that will commence from January 4.
Australia's squad for 5th Ashes Test: Steve Smith (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster.